Subterra Heart

Chapter 44: Marina Ritty

Marina waited until Connor had disappeared around a corner of shelves and back up the stairs. She chewed on a nail absently and then spun around, marching to the end of her narrow corridor of shelves until she reached the set of desks that had been pushed up against the wall.

"Tess," she said quietly, and then blinked. She looked left and right down the basement wall. That shadow from earlier was nowhere to be seen. It had to have been Tess – it moved like her. Marina furrowed her brow, pursing her lips. Unless, of course, she had simply imagined things. Why in Founders' names would Tess have simply disappeared like that? There was no reason to hide. They were alone down here, were they not? Frustrated, Marina turned to her right and strode along the wall, walking perpendicular to rows and rows of shelves. Her heels clacked harshly against the floor.

"Tess," she barked, more loudly now. "Tess, I know you're here." If her silly imagination had cost her the chance to stay with Connor while he was dragged off to confront his cousin, then Founders, dark, and bloodrot take her, she'd –

Someone stepped out of the shelves in front of her. The lights were patchy up ahead, so this "someone" was a shadow, just like that dark patch that Marina had taken to be Tess earlier. However, this shadow was tall and bulky, and its movements were slow and deliberate, whereas Tess's motions tended to be quick and angular and a bit chaotic. It – or most accurately, "he" – began walking towards her. His footsteps fell with a heavy thud.

"Hey there, missy," he called in a rumbling, baritone voice. "Sorry, but Mr. Rocha's got an allergy for loose ends."

Marina's heart caught in her throat. So, Connor had been right to mistrust his cousin. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. For a brief moment, Marina froze. But then again, she had no intention of finding out what this man meant by Mr. Rocha's "allergy for loose ends." There was no time to waste. She kicked off her heels and dashed down the nearest set of shelves to her right. Her bare feet padded frantically against the cold floor. She needed to get to the end of these shelves – there would be a break about halfway through the room, and then another right, and then the stairs. That was her only exit, and she needed to get there first. Behind her, the heavy footsteps quickened.

Marina was not a fast runner. She was not athletic in any sense of the word. Her chest burned with adrenaline and the need for air, and the shelves seemed to stretch on forever. There was a stray box in the center of the aisle. Marina tried to jump it, but she misjudged the distance and tripped over it, sprawling across the floor. Her legs tangled in her skirt as she tried to scramble back to her feet. The heavy footsteps slowed as her pursuer approached Marina's aisle. Then, they paused.

"Hey, who are you?" he growled, just out of sight. Marina finally got back to her feet and began backing up down the aisle. She crouched, trying to peer through the shelves to her right, wondering who her pursuer was talking to. Another shadow darted past Marina's aisle to meet the pursuer.

"Hey!" he yelled again. A quick scuffle ensued at the far end of the shelves. Bodies knocked back and forth between the basement wall and iron-wrought shelves, sending vibrations down their lengths. Two books and a box of old datacards clattered to the ground in front of Marina. There was a guttural scream, followed by ragged gasping. Marina flinched and tensed, ready to begin sprinting again.

Then, Tess stepped around the corner.

She was no longer covered in burns and bandages, but long, cat-claw scratches ran across her forehead, and her eyeballs were still black with the remnants of bloodrot. Her beautiful, long hair was replaced by dark peach-fuzz, and she wore a bulky green jacket that reached down to her knees. A silky silver tunic shimmered underneath, and a pair of welding goggles hung loosely about her neck. She stank of sewage. 

In each hand, Tess carried one of Marina's grey shoes, held backwards so that Marina could easily see the sharp point of the heels. They were red and slick and shiny, and Tess's face was blank. Devoid of any expression.

Suddenly, the girl standing before Marina blinked, and she was Tess once more. Her eyes widened, and her mouth gaped. She dropped the bloodied heels.

"Marina," she gasped, with a voice as clear as a bell. "I – I." Her hands shook. "I think I kill – I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry, I just – he was chasing you and you were scared and I –"

Marina hurried forward and gripped her sister's shoulders firmly, shaking her.

"Pull yourself together, Tess. We have got bigger things to worry about right now," she hissed. He sister was here and alive. Marina should feel relieved, and she was. She felt more alive than she had in days at the sight of her little sister, but now all that she could think about was Connor. She needed to make sure that he was alright.

They could worry about the man that Tess had fought at a later point. He had clearly been threatening Marina, and Founders only knew what he would have done to her. She could still hear his sporadic, labored breaths. By the sounds of it, he was no longer a problem.

"You arrre not wrrrong, human-named Marina," came a muffled voice from behind Tess. Marina let her hands drop and stared at her sister in disbelief.

"Bastet?!" she hissed, and when Tess grimaced guiltily, Marina flew into a fit. "Tess, you stupid, stupid fool! A Dweller? You brought a Dweller into Heart Central? By the Founders girl, what are you thinking?"

"We'll need her," insisted Tess, "And I've got her stored in a speela tank. It'll be fine. It's air-tight, see?"

As she spoke, Tess slipped a backpack off her shoulders and unzipped it to show the large metal cannister that normally held Park's crystal. Bastet's voice echoed out from within it once more.

"Yes, and this is a rrrather displeasing mode of trrransport," she muttered.

Marina looked from the speela tank and back to Tess, blinking. She had almost made the mistake of thinking that nothing could surprise her anymore. Tess shouldered the backpack again and gave Marina a pointed look.

"And yeah, you and Bastet right. We've got more important things to think about right now. I'm going to need to talk with Lenny Rocha. He stole Matteo Rocha's notebooks." A pained expression flitted across Tess's face, but it was gone in a moment. "And I think I know where he and Connor are at."